On May 10th Vermont independent candidate Dennis Steele became the first gubernatorial candidate to be certified by the Secretary of State for the November election. Steele submitted over 625 signatures to qualify for the general election.
Then on May 13th he learned that State Attorney Tim Allen had decided not to pursue disorderly conduct charges against him by two Barre policemen in conjunction with his intervention at the April 1st gubernatorial debate held in the Old Labor Hall.
For asking how an independent Vermont might deal with the state’s $150 million deficit, Steele was dragged out of the Labor Hall by two policemen, handcuffed, arrested, taken to the police station, finger printed, photographed, and charged with disorderly conduct. All of this for suggesting that if Vermont were to become an independent republic, it would be relieved of its obligation to pay the federal government $1.5 billion per year for its prorata share of the defense budget.
For the first time since he announced his candidacy for governor on January 15th, Dennis was invited to participate in a gubernatorial candidate forum. On May 13th he joined the five Democratic candidates at a conference on “Children’s Hunger” at the Green Mountain Club near Waterbury.
As evidence that not everyone likes the attention his candidacy is attracting, Steele was the target of a cheap shot by WPTZ TV anchor Gus Rosendale on the six o’clock news on May 12th. In a piece on “Local Radical Groups” Rosendale tried to link the Second Vermont Republic to a convicted sex offender and two unsavory political groups. He neglected to even mention that Steele was running for governor. To add insult to injury Rosendale also brought in mean-spirited, Southern Policy Law Center witch-hunter Mark Potak. SPLC is a well known apologist for the American Empire and its technofascist puppet state, Israel. It is the left-wing equivalent of the John Birch Society.
Secession is a tough sell in Vermont as elsewhere.
Thomas H. Naylor
May 15, 2010
